ECB Forum on Central Banking 2026

Opening reception and dinner

Dinner hosted by the Executive Board of the European Central Bank

Introductory speech

Christine Lagarde, President, European Central Bank

A live stream of the dinner speech will begin at 20:00. 

Session 1
Accelerating growth in Europe: innovation versus diffusion

Chair: Boris Vujčić, Vice-President, European Central Bank 

Paper: Rewiring Europe’s productivity framework: aligning investment, innovation, and diffusion

Author: Bart Van Ark, Professor, University of Manchester

Discussant: Monika Schnitzer, Professor, University of Munich

Session 2
Regulatory cycles, stability risks and growth opportunities

Chair: Frank Elderson, Member of the Executive Board and Vice-Chair of the Supervisory Board, European Central Bank

Paper: The stringency and complexity of post crisis bank regulation

Author: Mariassunta Giannetti, Professor, Stockholm School of Economics
(together with Cameron Ellis, Associate Professor, University of Iowa, and Chotibhak Jotikasthira, Professor, Southern Methodist University)

Discussant: Enrico Perotti, Professor, University of Amsterdam

Young Economist Prize

Introduction of the finalists – speed presentations on the stage

Panel 1
Artificial intelligence and financial stability

Chair: Isabel Schnabel, Member of the Executive Board, European Central Bank

• Tobias Adrian, Financial Counsellor and Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department, International Monetary Fund
• Sarah Breeden, Deputy Governor for Financial Stability, Bank of England
• Itay Goldstein, Professor, University of Pennsylvania
• Torsten Slok, Chief Economist, Apollo Global Management

A conversation about artificial intelligence

• Aaron Chatterji, Chief Economist, OpenAI, and Professor, Duke University

• Philip R. Lane, Member of the Executive Board, European Central Bank

Welcome and introduction

Session 3
Migration: implications for productivity and growth in Europe

Chair: Boris Vujčić, Vice-President, European Central Bank 

Paper: The immigration impact on population, labor productivity, investments and TFP in OECD countries

Author: Giovanni Peri, Professor, University of California, Davis
(together with Gaetano Basso, Economist, Banca d'Italia, and Mitali R. Mathur, University of California, Davis)

Discussant: Hillel Rapoport, Professor, Paris School of Economics

Session 4
Tokenisation: challenges and opportunities when money, payments and financial transactions become digital

Chair: Piero Cipollone, Member of the Executive Board, European Central Bank

Paper: A unified ledger in practice: lessons from Project Hangang

Author: Hyun Song Shin, Governor, Bank of Korea
(together with Jaemin Ryu, Joonyi Sung, and Sung Guan Yun, all Bank of Korea)

Discussant: Catherine Casamatta, Toulouse School of Economics

Panel 2
Europe’s role in the new global trade landscape

Chair: Philip R. Lane, Member of the Executive Board, European Central Bank

• Laura Alfaro Maykall, Chief Economist and Economic Counselor, Inter-American Development Bank
• Marion Jansen, Director of the Trade and Agriculture Directorate, OECD
• Ralph Ossa, Professor, University of Zurich
• Denis Redonnet, Deputy Director-General for Trade and Economic Security, European Commission

Policy panel

• Andrew Bailey, Governor, Bank of England
• Christine Lagarde, President, European Central Bank
• Tiff Macklem, Governor, Bank of Canada 
• Kevin Warsh, Chairman, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Moderator: Sara Eisen, Anchor, CNBC

Award ceremony for the Young Economist Prize

Closing remarks

Christine Lagarde, President, European Central Bank